It’s scary to look at today’s nationwide numbers for students in the fourth grade that aren’t able to read at grade level.  What’s worse is that the numbers are much worse for the most at risk students – the economically disadvantaged (Title 1) and the immigrant populations (Title 3), two thirds of which struggle academically.  Lack of fundamental reading and math skills at an early age is a great predictor of academic failure in middle and high school.

Research has proven that one answer to helping the most at risk students is the use of individualized instruction that focuses on filling each student’s learning gaps.  The only way to do that is to first figure out what they need.  The education system has always struggled with that, because it is difficult, at best, to assess students on a large scale.  Administering a paper and pencil test to a student requires a remarkable amount of resources and the results are usually not available for weeks or months later.

Automated testing systems are the answer. Online assessments are now available for elementary level reading and math skills that will allow for hundreds of students to be assessed at the same time. What’s even better is that the results of the assessment are immediately produced and ready for educators to use for setting up differentiated instruction. Another plus that a computer based online assessment offers that paper and pencil test don’t is that they are adaptive. Online adaptive assessments move up or down in level of difficulty based on the student’s performance on the assessment and are by their very nature much more precise.

In addition to online assessments, there are also programs that offer automated online instruction. When the instruction program is set up based on the results of the assessment, the student will receive true differentiated instruction. If this is set up automatically, then the teacher can focus on a greater level of intervention when necessary.

Here’s how it works. If a fifth grader takes the online reading assessment and the results show a significant weakness in phonics skills, the automated instruction program will automatically provide phonics instruction at the appropriate level for that student. In most cases, the automated system will be the only way for that student to receive instruction in phonics because it is not offered in the fifth grade.

It is well known that the fundamental skills developed in elementary school are critical for future success. Automated systems implemented in elementary schools for reading and math can ensure that the fundamental skills are well developed and can greatly improve the academic outcomes of our students.

This new teaching method, which requires teachers to initiate scientifically based, intensive instruction when students show signs of struggling academically, is supposed to be the formula for better academic results for most students.  This is a real problem because if the very teachers who are going to implement the new approach don’t have a clue about what it is or how it works, then it won’t happen for the kids that need it most.

Even with the endorsement and support of the NEA and the formation of the RTI Action Network, a recent informal survey of 800 teachers revealed that over 80% of the respondents rated their knowledge of RTI as “minimal to none.”  In response to this knowledge gap, the 3.2 million member NEA, the nation’s largest teachers’ union held a symposium designed to introduce educators to RTI.

A key concept of RTI is that all students in the classroom need to be evaluated to see if they are on track academically.  The evaluations should reveal strengths and weaknesses and give teachers the information thaey will need to address the issues head on.  This initial evaluation is a key concept of differentiated instruction and in fact they are one and the same.  RTI is truly a way of formally bringing a process for delivering differentiated intruction to those that need it most.

If the educators can get the message and the training to bring RTI to the classroom, then that along with automated systems that achieve the similar result can truly change the results that we’re getting in our schools, especially in the early elementary grades where skills building is so critical for later success.